Volume 2 · The Discipline of Hours · Essay 284

Variable Ratio Reward

Variable Ratio Reward is a measuring stick. Use it on yourself before you use it on others; the readings are more honest that way.

No single score defines a person, a team, or a year. But a score honestly taken is a mirror, and mirrors, however unkind, are cheaper than self-deception.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

A pressure cooker teaches more about time than any seminar: sealed, steady heat does in twenty minutes what an open pot cannot do in an hour. Attention is the lid.

Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. And when you forget it — you will — the world will remind you. It is a faithful tutor.